I have Instagram and my son talked me in to doing the October challenge #octogram. So far, so good. Today's picture... #scarecrow Now there are two #octograms going on right now. If you have Instagram and want to partake, do a search in Instagram for #octogram and look for the one with the jack-o-lantern face. That's the one I'm doing!! You can tag me @danibertrand

I'm also doing something October inspired this month on my blog: Thirty-One Loves of October. Today I'm going to share 3 since I don't blog on Saturdays and Sundays, and this is an everyday shoutout to my 31 things I love about October.

Beautiful Skies - October has some of the most spectacular sunrises and sunsets and the most wonderful color palettes painted in the sky.

Pumpkin carvings - I love seeing all of the creative carvings people come up with and how different they all are. Some people are just so talented!

Candles - This is my favorite time of year to buy candles. Some of the best fragrances are during the Autumn season. Pumpkin spice, vanilla spice﻿, leaves, pumpkin pie, etc. I try to stock up for the whole year. Yankee Candle, Gold Canyon or Bath and Body have some of my favorites.

Happy birthday to your little girl! I love October. It's the start of the best time of year. I'm a fan of the cool weather. I love the warmly scented candles. I even like the pumpkin carving. I usually volunteer to scoop the "pumpkin guts" out :D

Hope your daughter has a wonderful birthday! I love carved pumpkins and all the Halloween stuff, but where I live it's almost summer and all that spooky autumnal stuff just feels dumb. And where's the fun in trick or treating in the sunlight?